Pollak: New Democrat Heroine Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Is an Anti-Israel Radical

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the 28-year-old democratic socialist who became an instant Democratic Party heroine by unseating party caucus chair Rep. Joe Crowley (D-NY) in Tuesday’s New York primary, is an anti-Israel radical.

Her victory is a further sign of the Democratic Party’s slide toward the extreme left — and toward the anti-Israel left in particular.

During her primary election, Ocasio-Cortez tweeted passionately about an alleged Israeli “massacre” of Palestinian “protesters” at the Gaza border, citing an Al Jazeera article.

This is a massacre.

I hope my peers have the moral courage to call it such.

No state or entity is absolved of mass shootings of protesters. There is no justification. Palestinian people deserve basic human dignity, as anyone else.

But those killed at the Gaza border were not “protesters.” The vast majority — 50 of 62 — were members of Hamas, a terrorist organization devoted to the destruction of Israel and the murder of Jews. They were not demonstrating against Israel. They were attempting to breach the border so they could carry out attacks against Israeli civilians.

Far from carrying out a “massacre,” Israeli forces showed extraordinary restraint, using pinpoint attacks to target the terrorists and avoid hitting the many human shields — including children — that Hamas marched to the fence. In the event, the so-called “peaceful” protesters set fire to Israeli fields nearby using kites equipped with explosives.

Ocasio-Cortez brought up the Gaza deaths again after a debate with a Crowley surrogate who claimed — bizarrely — that the incumbent supported the move of the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. (Like every other Democrat, Crowley failed to show up for the event, or for a party held to celebrate it in Washington, D.C.) That was too much for Ocasio-Cortez, who not only opposed the embassy move but also cited the Hamas dead in doing so:

In a bizarre twist, Rep. Crowley sent a woman with slight resemblance to me as his official surrogate to last night’s debate.@repjoecrowley’s surrogate said he is in full support of Trump’s embassy change in Israel last month (where 60 people died).

The Jewish radicals of J Street will, no doubt, be thrilled to have another member of Congress who supports Hamas over Israel, and will rush to her defense. But for the few Democrats who still support Israel, her victory is worrying.

Ocasio-Cortez’s anti-Israel views are of a piece with her radical policies in general — such as government health care for all, free college tuition, guaranteed federal jobs, and abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). (At least she is consistent: she does not believe in a border fence with Gaza or a border wall with Mexico.) Her campaign even adopted the zombie-like “mic check” first seen at radical Occupy Wall Street protests in 2011.

Ocasio-Cortez’s anti-Israel views, like her other socialist policies, are ill-informed and would have devastating consequences if enacted. She is not stupid: far from it, the Boston University graduate is whip-smart. But like other far-left millennials, she has mastered the finer details of a fictional universe.

These are positions she will not easily walk back. Her victory has thrilled the Democratic base, but it spells trouble for the party, and for the country.